Chinese dissident Xu Bo (徐波) yesterday asked a visiting TSU lawmaker to help arrange a meeting with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) three weeks after beginning an attempt to win political asylum in Taiwan.
While Xu's case is being decided the dissident is stranded at CKS International Airport, sleeping in makeshift quarters at the office of the Aviation Police Bureau.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I'd like to meet with President Chen," Xu told visiting TSU Legislator Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) at a meeting in the bureau's inquiry room yesterday morning.
PHOTO: TONY K. YAO, TAIPEI TIMES
In his meeting with the lawmaker, Xu said he wanted to tell the president face to face how important it was for Taiwan to support the democracy movement in China.
"I feel I have very concrete reasons to persuade him ... And then it'll be helpful to my case," Xu said.
Xu, born in 1961 in the Chinese province of Guizhou, said if the president would not heed his argument he would try and seek political asylum elsewhere.
Xu fled China four years ago after the publication of his book, Red Fascist, which criticized the Beijing authorities. Fearing deportation from South Korea back to China, Xu decided to seek asylum in Taiwan during a transit at CKS international airport on Jan. 27 en route to Bangkok.
Xu's problem is that Taiwan does not legally recognize the right of political asylum. His status is currently that of an illegal immigrant.
Earlier yesterday, the lawmaker gave Xu two books concerning the incumbent president and former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) together with a box of cookies to show his concerns for the asylum seeker.
Xu showed the visiting legislator his temporary home inside the Aviation Police Bureau office -- with his single bed scattered with books and magazines.
Chang Charng-peng (張長鵬), chief of the passport control branch of the Aviation Police Bureau, said his unit had suggested the government relocate Xu to the nearby CKS airport transit hotel to provide him with better accommodation.
Xu also yesterday showed files of Korean newspaper clips reporting his thwarted bid for political asylum at the US and Canadian embassies in Seoul.
Some reports also touched upon the South Korean government's refusal to grant him asylum despite his status as an international refugee recognized by the UN High Commission for Refugee Affairs.
Xu said that he had decided to seek asylum in Taiwan because he had nowhere else to go.
Officials have said they have reservations about Xu's status as a democracy campaigner in China and fear setting a precedent in accepting a self-proclaimed Chinese dissident as the move might have detrimental effects on cross-strait ties.
The lawmaker urged the government to speed up its handling of the issue.
"If the government in private opposes having these Chinese democracy fighters staying in Taiwan to develop their networks, then it should say so clearly," said Chen.
Xu also told the legislator that establishing direct links with China could put Taiwan in a risky situation.
"Once three links are established, communist China will devour Taiwan economically and thus accelerate its move to suppress Taiwan politically," Xu said.
Xu also urged the government to seek a way to limit China-bound capital flow, warning such a trend, if it continued, may turn Taiwan into another Hong Kong, losing all its economic autonomy.
Xu has been identified as the head of the Seoul contact office of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, a group led by dissident Wei Jingsheng (魏京生), since March last year.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS